Panchanan Barma

Panchanan Barma (Bengali: পঞ্চানন বর্মা) (1866–1935), also known as Thakur Panchanan and Roy Saheb, was a Rajbanshi leader and reformer from Cooch Behar. He established a Kshatriya Sabhā to instill Brahminical values and practices in people of his low caste.

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Panchanan Barma, M.A., B.L., M.L.C., M.B.E., who was born 'Panchanan Sarkar', originally came from a jotedar family of Cooch Behar. He was born on 11 February 1866 at Khalisamari village, Mathabhanga Sub-division, in erstwhile Cooch Behar State, to Mr. Khoshal Sarkar (d. 1890) and Mrs. Champala Sarkar. He graduated from a Kolkata college, with an honours in Sanskrit, in 1893. He later privately completed his M.A. in Mental and Moral Philosophy in 1896 from the University of Calcutta, and later took his L.L.B. degree from Ripon College, Kolkata, in 1900. In the early years of his career, he started practicing law at Rangpur court. In Rangpur he was shocked by the refusal of a high caste lawyer to use a toga (lawyer's gown), previously used by him. In the following years, he led a kshatriyazation movement among Rajbanshi community of Bengal. In order to be respected and accepted by the upper caste Bengalis Panchanan felt the Rajbanshis must get organized and educated, which he tried to achieve through the Kshatriya Samity. Understandably, the Samity tried to prove that Rajbanshis were Kshatriyas with a royal lineage, suggesting a historical link with Bhaskarvarman, the king of Kamarupa. Based on Sanskrit literature and Brahmin pundits, they also claimed to be Kshatriyas, hiding their true identity for centuries. In support of this claim the movement involved a ceremonial kshatriyaisation process - brahminical rituals were performed to convert thousands of Rajbanshis to ‘Kshatriya Rajbanshi’ in the villages of North Bengal. In 1921, Panchanan was selected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly after winning the general election. Panchanan Sarkar died in Kolkata on 9 September 1935.

The name of the Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University commemorates his legacy.